Cooperation With Engineering 

Colleges 



By the Committee on 
RELATIONS WITH ENGINEERING COLLEGES 



Chairman 

W. E. WlCKENDEN 

Assistant Vice-President, American Telephone and Telegraph Co. 




Copyright, 1922 

NATIONAL PERSONNEL ASSOCIATION 

20 Vesey Street ----- New York, N. Y. 



COMMITTEE ON RELATIONS WITH ENGINEERING 

COLLEGES 

W. E. Wickenden, Chairman; Assistant Vice-President, American 
Telephone and Telegraph Co. 

F. L. Bishop, Dean of Engineering, University of Pittsburg. 

G. H. Pfeif, Secretary, Educational Committee, General Electric Co. 



Note: — This report will be discussed at the convention. Members should- 
brinq their copies of reports ivith them. No copies will be avail- 
able for free distribution at the convention. 

©CIA6S8642 

NOV -j 1922 



_ h n* 



Cooperation with Engineering Colleges 

I. INTRODUCTION 

The Committee on Technical Training presented extensive reports 
to the National Association of Corporation Training in 1918, 1919 
and 1921. These reports reviewed the possible ways and means of 
cooperation between corporations and engineering colleges to pro- 
mote a better understanding of each other's problems, to supply 
the proper industrial background to college training and to facilitate 
the employment of graduates. The confusion in the colleges and 
the interruptions of their regular programs caused by the unrelated 
recruiting activities of the corporations were clearly brought out. 
Valuable suggestions were offered looking toward improvement 
through the Association as the correlating agency of the corpora- 
tions. While no continuing activities were set up the surveys were 
of definite value in clarifying the situation and paving the way for 
more effective cooperation. 

The present committee has construed its principal function as 
the building up of a working relationship between the Association 
and the engineering colleges. It is believed that this relationship 
should rest on a solid foundation of mutual service and that it 
should supplement but not duplicate other cooperative efforts. The 
approach to this basis of mutual service involves four lines of 
inquiry : 

1. The respects in which member companies are concerned with 
engineering education. 

2. The activities of other agencies already active in this field. 

3. The forms of assistance for which the engineering colleges 
may appropriately look to this Association. 

4. The services which the Association can render its member 
companies which it would be impracticable or costly for them to 
obtain individually. 

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II. SCOPE OF RELATIONS WITH ENGINEERING 

COLLEGES 

The Concern of Member Companies in Engineering Education 

The member companies are interested in engineering colleges as : 

Sources of trained personnel 

Agencies of research and expert consultation 

Agencies of publicity 

Molders of public opinion. 

Member companies employ engineering graduates in large num- 
bers. They are concerned with the adequacy of the supply of 
graduates to meet the industrial demand, with the type of men 
whom the engineering colleges attract, with the appropriations and 
the thoroughness of their training, with suitable terms of employ- 
ment, with college records and other aids to the selection of gradu- 
ates, with the kind and amount of information available to students 
concerning various fields of service, and with the agencies in the 
colleges for vocational counsel and placement. 

Member companies frequently encounter research problems which 
can best be handled in the finely equipped laboratories of the col- 
leges. To advantage they can frequently engage engineering teachers 
as consulting experts. These occasions are most apt to arise in 
connection with problems of greater theoretical difficulty or scientific 
refinement than the regular facilities of the Company provide for. 
A number of institutions have definitely organized bureaus for such 
services and are prepared to execute definite contracts. 

Engineering colleges are important agencies of publicity and mold- 
ers of opinion. Member companies are concerned that their dis- 
tinctive fields of activity shall be fairly and adequately presented 
in the courses of instruction, in the discussions of student societies, 
in the student publications and in the informal, but often influential, 
comments of the instructors. 

As engineers constitute an increasingly influential group in modern 
industry and government, all member companies are concerned that 
the schools shall ground them in sound principles and equip them 
with sound methods in their relations to social and economic ques- 
tions. There is a need that engineers shall attack these questions 
with the same unprejudiced fact-finding, analytical methods as they 
have used with such marked success on material problems. As a 
balance to these dispassionate, scientific methods there is an equal 

4 



need among engineers for sympathetic insight into human motives 
and aspirations and an understanding of the principles which under- 
lie governmental, business and industrial organization. 

It is scarcely necessary to emphasize the fundamental importance 
of this group of interests, nor to urge the propriety of this Asso- 
ciation having an active part in shaping the progress of engineering 
education. 

Other Agencies Active in Shaping Engineering Education 

An active interest in engineering education is being taken by 
twenty or more organizations of national scope. These fall natu- 
rally into five groups, viz., (1), professional societies of engineers, 
such as the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American 
Institute of Electrical Engineers and the like; (2), associations 
of industries, ranging from the widely inclusive National Industrial 
Conference Board to the grouping of specific industries, such as the 
American Electric Railway Association; (3), the distinctly educa- 
tional societies, notably the Society for the Promotion of Engineering 
Education, whose membership consists largely of engineering 
teachers; (4), the endowed foundations, such as the Carnegie 
Foundation and General Education Board; and (5), government 
agencies. 

The professional engineering societies have committees on edu- 
cation and maintain student branches at the engineering colleges. 
They encourage research in educational institutions, publish and dis- 
cuss papers on the advances in professional practice, voice the aims 
and ideals of the engineering professions and seek to guide the 
evolution of the courses of study and methods of teaching in keeping 
with these ideals and aims. Next to the schools, they are the most 
important educational agencies in the engineering field. 

The associations of particular industries are quite active along 
publicity lines, seeking to create a favorable attitude toward such 
industries and to induce graduates to enter their employ. The 
National Industrial Conference Board has set up a Joint Conference 
Committee on Engineering Education with a like committee from 
the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education. The 
scope of this joint committee's activities is well expressed by the 
following quotations from an official statement published by the 
Conference Board : 

"It was emphasized as a primary consideration that American in- 
dustry's efficient development and contribution to the national welfare 

5 



is closely bound up with the character and efficiency of the pro- 
fessional engineers educated in the various engineering schools, and 
required in industry as technical experts and inventors, as managers 
and executives of industrial enterprises. Equally important is the 
development of competent men as instructors in the engineering 
schools. 

"For these reasons, and also because engineering schools are, after 
all, a part of the industrial system, and must therefore function 
efficiently if the system as a whole is to be efficient, it was agreed that 
there must be a close and cooperative relationship between engineer- 
ing schools and American industry in its various branches ; and 
adequate methods must be developed under which each will help the 
other in the common cause of adequately training professional en- 
gineers. 

"The Committee is not concerned with details of college curricula, 
but with the broader aspects of the problem, such as the best way of 
fitting the graduate of the engineering schools into industry; whether 
and how best to give the student industrial training coincident with 
his academic studies ; an adequate supply of high-grade instructors 
and a better understanding of their responsibilities by both industry 
and the engineering schools." 

The Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education has 
further created from its own membership a Board of Investigation 
and Coordination whose objects are stated to be: 

"1. To ascertain the facts in engineering education, such as con- 
cerns (a) teachers, their origin, training, experience and effective- 
ness; (b) teaching facilities; (c) curriculums ; (d) students and 
graduates, their origin, training, experience and effectiveness. 

2. To ascertain present and future requirements in the fields served 
by engineer graduates. 

3. To present the facts and requirements for their bearing on the 
training of the engineer to the end that he may (a) develop himself 
and his profession; (b) realize and fulfill his obligation to society. 

4. To maintain close contact with engineering schools enabling 
them to participate in the investigations; and reporting to them from 
time to time; to the end that the developments may be continuous 
from the initial contact between the colleges and the agencies of the 
Board. 

5. To secure the necessary funds for these purposes." 

It is proposed to place a salaried director, with adequate staff, 
at the head of this Board and to create a Board of Counsellors rep- 
resenting the several industrial fields to which engineering educa- 
tion is related. 

The endowed foundations are chiefly concerned with the finan- 
cial support of higher education and with broad investigations of 
educational practice. 

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The United States Bureau of Education has given active attention 
to promoting closer relations between education in business and in 
engineering. Two largely attended public conferences have been 
held on this subject, and substantial progress has been made in the 
direction of greater emphasis of business principles and practice in 
engineering schools. 

Assistance Which This Association May Give the Engineering 
Colleges 

The engineering colleges have a strong claim on the assistance of 
the industries in return for services rendered. The schools have 
made inestimable contributions to scientific knowledge from which 
the industries have profited without cost. Education has increased 
earning power and so has made possible the markets on which many 
industries depend for existence. The colleges have expended on 
each engineering graduate from $800 to $2000 above all fees re- 
ceived. The industries profit by this training and would be com- 
pelled to provide costly substitutes for it if it were not available. 
The ways and means by which this assistance may be given by the 
industries are indicated in the following outline : 

Forms of Assistance to Engineering Colleges from Corporations 

a. Financial Assistance. 

1. Contributions to funds for plant and equipment. 

2. Contributions to general endowments. 

3. Contributions to funds for current expense. 

4. Endowment of chairs and lectureships. 

5. Endowment for research. 

6. Specific grants for research. 

7. Establishment of scholarships. 

8. Employment of teachers for expert services by financial 
arrangement with the college. 

9. Use of influence in campaigns for endowment or increased 
public support. 

b. Material Assistance. 

1. Donations of equipment for plant and laboratories. 

2. Special discounts on equipment and supplies. 

3. Loans of equipment. 

c. Teaching and Administrative Service. 

1. Loan of industrial experts for teaching services. 

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2. Services of lecturers for special courses. 

3. Services of executives on boards of trustees, on visiting 
committees, in conference on administrative problems, in 
financial campaigns and in appeals for increased public 
support. 

d. Subject Matter and Other Aids to Instruction. 

1. Supply of engineering circulars, data sheets, problems and 
drawings. 

2. Supply of special engineering information on request. 

3. Supply of educational material prepared for Company use. 

4. Supply of Company magazines, when of serious interest. 

5. Supply of reprints of publications of employees. 

6. Broad-gauge publication policy on books and papers. 

e. Supplying Industrial Background and Experience. 

1. Intelligently organized inspection trips. 

2. Employment of students on cooperative part-time plan. 

3. Employment of students in vacations at educationally valu- 
able work. 

4. Employment of teachers in vacations, during periods of 
leave and on special problems. 

/. Contributions to Morale. 

1. Emphasis on permanent vs. transient values in college life, 
in advertising, interviews, talks to students and material 
supplied to student publications. 

2. Reports to colleges on achievements of their graduates. 

3. Courtesies to teachers which encourage them in the sense 
of the value of their work. 

g. Publicity of Educational Value. 

1. Stimulating and constructive advertising in college papers. 

2. Lectures, personally delivered or supplied in manuscript 
form with illustrative material. 

3. Loans of films, slides, photographs and exhibits. 

h. Contributions to Vocational Guidance of Students. 

1. Through carefully prepared vocational literature on various 
phases of industry and commerce. 

2. Through opportunities extended to deans, appointment sec- 
retaries and teachers to study workings of corporations in 
detail and on the ground. 

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3. Through addresses to student groups. 

4. Through constructive handling of employment interviews. 

5. Through surveys of the annual requirements for graduates 
in representative industries. 

i. Contributions to Educational Research. 

1. Publication of job analyses giving the technical content of 
work done by engineering graduates. 

2. Publication of results obtained by corporations with psycho- 
logical tests, rating scales, aptitude tests and the like. 

3. Publication of data bearing on the degree and type of suc- 
cess attained by young engineers as related to their scholas- 
tic records and their non-scholastic activities as college 
students. 

The above outline does not exhaust the possibilities of cooperation. 
Instances of actual cooperation between industries and colleges 
could be cited under practically every item. Many of the activities 
listed are of such a nature that they can best be undertaken on the 
initiative of individual corporations, the Association lending its ac- 
tive encouragement and in some cases, performing a clearing-house 
service. Items in the general groups I to VII inclusive appear to 
be of this general character. The groups VIII and IX are particu- 
larly appropriate for joint initiative through this Association. 

Appropriate Fields of Service to Member Companies 

The services which this Association can render its member com- 
panies in their relations with engineering colleges appear to be of 
two general types : 

Clearing house on matters of information. 
Agency of investigation and promotion. 

Clearing house services may include such matters as information 
to member companies on the numbers of graduates available for 
employment, classified by colleges, courses of study, and preferences 
as to type of employment; information on appropriate starting 
rates and other terms of employment for graduates; information 
on the extent of recruiting activities planned by member com- 
panies; information on the practices of member companies relative 
to gifts, loan and sale of equipment and supplies at discount prices ; 
address lists of deans, professors and appointment secretaries to 
facilitate sending out bulletins and other information; names of 
teachers or institutions particularly well equipped to handle special 

9 



problems ; names of engineering teachers available for summer em- 
ployment ; and the methods of handling employment matters at par- 
ticular institutions. 

Clearing house services to the college may properly include 
supplying information on the probable numbers of recruits to be 
sought by member companies, on opportunities for the vacation em- 
ployment of teachers and undergraduates and on sources from which 
speakers, exhibits, films, slides and technical information may be 
obtained among member companies. 

In its function as an agency of investigation and promotion the 
Association may serve the member companies by studying the 
methods of vocational counsel and placement employed by the 
colleges and formulation suggestions for the strengthening of this 
work; by collecting, editing and disseminating sound and unpreju- 
diced information on the vocational opportunities for engineering 
graduates in the several industries and commercial groups making 
up its membership ; by giving circulation among the colleges to 
valuable data and results appearing in its publications ; and by serv- 
ing as an official agency of cooperation for the personnel interests 
of the country with other agencies active in shaping engineering 
education. 

III. RECOMMENDATIONS 

The following recommendations are offered as to a working pro- 
gram for the coming year: 

1. That the Association should recognize the priority of interest 
of the national engineering societies and the Society for the Promo- 
tion of Engineering Education in shaping courses of study and 
methods of teaching on the technical side, but that the Association 
should seek to cooperate actively with these bodies to the end that 
the human relations of industry and the principles of commercial 
and industrial organization may be given due recognition in en- 
gineering education. 

2. That the Association should offer its active cooperation to 
the National Industrial Conference Board and the Society for the 
Promotion of Engineering Education in their joint investigation of 
the extent and nature of the industrial demand for trained en- 
gineers. 

3. That the Association should make an investigation of the 
methods of vocational counsel and placement of graduates em- 

10 



ployed in the engineering colleges and formulate recommendations 
for the strengthening of this work. 

4. That the Association should make an annual survey of the re- 
quirements of the member companies for engineering graduates, 
both as to number and type, for the information of the companies 
and the colleges, and that this survey be closely coordinated with 
similar inquiries made through the National Industrial Board. 

5. That the Association should make an annual survey of the 
supply of graduates at the several engineering schools, and if prac- 
ticable, of their preferences as to type of employment, for the in- 
formation of member companies. 

6. That the Association should make an annual survey of the 
opportunities for vacation employment open to engineering students 
and instructors in member companies, for the information of the 
colleges. 

7. That the Association should undertake to render clearing 
house services to member companies and engineering colleges as 
outlined under Section II above. 

8. That the Association should begin the preparation of a series 
of bulletins for circulation among college officers and students in 
which the nature, organization, fundamental technology and busi- 
ness outlook of the principal fields of industrial and commercial 
activity are set forth from the viewpoint of the vocational guidance 
of engineering students. 

9. That the Association encourage the preparation of articles 
on the distinctive features of various industries which should be 
considered in judging opportunities for employment after gradua- 
tion and arrange for their appearance in student publications. 



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